“Holy @$#%!” said Adam Hinterthuer in Scientific American. It turns out that “dropping the F-bomb” and other swear words can actually relieve physical pain. At least that’s the finding of psychologists at Britain’s Keele University, who had students hold their hands in freezing cold water and yell first profanities then “more socially acceptable words.” When cursing, students held their hands in about 40 seconds longer.
The researchers, writing in the journal NeuroReport, suggest that “spewing foul language” triggers our “fight-or-flight” response, said Paul Taylor in Canada’s Globe and Mail, releasing adrenalin and prompting other physiological pain-tolerance changes. That contradicts earlier theories, that swearing made pain worse by embellishing its severity.
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